Dollar Store Treasures

Hello all, today I thought I would show some items that I purchased at the Dollar Store and turned into art. One is in process and one is complete. This first one is one of those little puzzles for kids where you try and get all the little metal beads to fall into the little holes. Here is a picture of what it looked like to begin with (size is probablay 2 in across):

I found that I could remove the top clear part fairly easily. Once that was done I pulled out the cardboard background. I then painted the orange base with Krylon hammered metal spray paint. This took several coats. When that was complete I created a collage using vintage paper, an old family photo of my grandfather when he was a boy, and some rusty washers. I glued that in and replaced the top and this is what it looks like now: Love these kind of projects! Of course I bought out the inventory of these little toys so now I have enough to last for a long time. I thought they would look cool incorporated into the cover of a book someday but that project is still in my head.

The other project is the one in progress. I came across these canvases at a dollar each and couldn't pass them up. I figured I could gesso them and go from there. However, I could not get the gesso (white) to completely cover the LOUD colors. (black gesso may have done it, but I was on to another idea). Here is the canvas as it was:

So, I took pages from an old book that I got at Salvation Army store and ripped them up and glued them so that the entire surface was covered. Then I aged the canvas using acrylic paints, gesso and inks to get the following look:

A great background, but now I got to figure out where I want to go with it. Some projects come easy and some just take a little mulling over. Course with me I am probably on to 6 other projects before (if) I get back to this. Showing it here though should give me incentive to finish it and post what it looks like! Enjoy!

Finally, an update!

Sorry if anyone checked back here and still found nothing new. I have had a baaad case of bronchitis and have been very slow for about 6 weeks now. Hopefully, I have seen the worst of it.

Anyway I am putting up some pictures of projects I have done using the gel media transfer method. The first one is a cover on a handmade book.

This is a small book about 4.25 x 5.25 with hand stitched blank pages. I really am not one to journal, but I LOVE to make all kinds of books. Now I just need to figure out what to do with them. For the cover I had taken a photo of a statue left at our house by the previous owners.

I then turned the photo into a high contrast black and white image using Photoshop (one of my favorite toys!) and paired it with a graphic background I had created from one of my drawings. Once I printed it on the inkjet, I made a toner based photocopy and transferred that using gel medium.

Here is a jar I did in the same manner. I have saved all kinds of jars to repurpose and this is one technique I was playing with. To get the background color I painted the glass with gesso, then a couple of coats of turquoise, and then sprayed with a clear coat. When that was dry I proceeded with the gel medium transfer.

The top center piece is made of polymer clay and crystals. This turned out, maybe, a little over the top, but I still kind of like it and it was part of what I call R & D (research and development); so usually things get better after the first piece.

I have one last image to share for now. It uses heat transfer instead of gel medium. It is still taken from a toner based copier. I then used one of the heat transfer gadgets that looks like a woodburner, but has a round flat tip. This was an image of lace that I transferred to thin copper sheet. It will be the perfect thing for some future project I'm sure.

Well, I could go on and on, but I must save something for another day! Hope you all enjoyed my babbling and hope you have as much fun with this stuff as I do.

Note: I am still trying to figure out all this blog stuff and hope to get some of the blogs I visit onto my list soon.

My First Post!

Well, I have been reading many blogs lately and have decided to try my own! I find so much inspiration from everyone's creations and wanted to contribute. I am (I hate to admit it--) a compulsive creator and work in just about any media I can get my hands on. Luckily I have a wonderful, understanding, and supportive husband who somehow puts up with my many artistic adventures (and misadventures) with a great sense of humor.

Just the other day we were remembering the time I called him in a panic because I had managed to melt a page protector on the drum of our brand new Canon photocopier. Whoops! there goes the warranty. It was one time that my thinking outside the box didn't quite work out so well. I am fairly mechanically inclined and I moved the copier into the kitchen to scope out the situation. Could I take it apart and get it back together without anyone but myself being any wiser? I started in but soon I was stuck. I needed to get to a place and I could'nt figure out how to get there. That was when the panic call went out to my husband.

My husband (who is a Diesel Mechanic by trade) came to my rescue and after about an hour of the two of us analyzing, and slowing taking the copier apart we got to the drum and managed to peel the offending plastic off. Of course during this whole process I was wringing my hands and also getting them gently slapped as I kept trying to "help" my husband. (Does anyone else have this problem? You know when you are watching someone do something and you can see what needs to be done and pretty soon your hands have a mind of their own and end up right in the way of the other person.) Amazingly enough, with lots of praying, we got the copier back together(with no extra parts left over) and I have been using it constantly for about 2 years. It is a toner based copier, so I use it for many art projects where I do a gel or heat transfer.

I will be working on posting some pictures of my projects soon.